Why is it the tool you need is the only one you can't find?

Sometimes I can’t find the tool I need NOW, but a week later doing a different I find that tool, but can’t find the different tool I need NOW. Another week goes by and doing a different project and I find that tool…and the cycle continues.

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That’s why I own 5 caulk guns…and probably 6 the next time I need one and have to go buy another…

The only tool I lost on a customer car was a long handle Snap On 3/8 ratchet. Did a timing belt on an Accord and forgot to remove the ratchet from the crank bolt. Rotated it through a few times to make sure there was no valve/piston contact and got taken off the job to do a state inspection; which is why I hated doing them. Concentration on job at hand was always interrupted.
Came back and oh yeah; fire it up. There was a bang when the ratchet went flying and I never found it although I heard it hit the far wall. Moved out work benches, tool boxes, and everything under the sun to no avail. That ratchet never turned up over the next couple of years although the Snap On guy was happy over the loss.

An 80 " driveway?

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I always noticed that my 1/2" socket and my 1/2" open end wrench seem to hide right when I need them. However, they always seem to turn up after I substituted an adjustable wrench or vice grips.
I had to have a water pump replaced on the 2011 Sienna I used to own. A week after the repair, I was checking the oil and found a box end ratchet wrench laying on the air intake. I figured the mechanic that did the work feels like I do about losing tools, so I took it back
Over a year later, Mrs Triedaq fell and broke her ankle. I hadn’t been driving her 4Runner, and when I tried to start it the battery was down. I hooked up the battery charger and boosted the battery enough so that I could start the engine. I knew that Mrs. Triedaq would soon be driving, so I took the 4Runner to the Toyota dealer for an electrical system check. This was the dealer that had replaced the water pump on my Sienna. They checked the electrical system, found no problems, and recommended I take the 4Runner for a 10 mile run on the highway. I wasn’t charged anything for the electrical system check. I felt bad about taking up the technician’s time and drinking two cups of coffee and eating a half dozen cookies in the waiting room, but I think I got the free service for returning the wrench.

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While integrity is frequently ‘it’s own reward, there are times when it generates perks.

Heh heh. No thanks. At my wife’s uncle’s estate sale I bought a box of stuff with the sabre saw I wanted and in the box was about a half dozen caulk guns. I didn’t pay much and everything had to go somewhere but they were the 99 cent variety. I suppose I still have a few around some place but I now prefer the more expensive ones. I remember the day well because I got speeding ticket on my 50th birthday after working all day at the sale. What bothered me the most is that the guy never said happy birthday-the slug.

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It’s got so bad I can’t find the tools I don’t need, but then, I really don’t care.

Otherwise, I go with the postings that say when this happens it’s time to put everything away, clear all the rubble off the floor, wind up the extension cord and clean your hands. Once everything is neat and tidy and your hands are nice and clean again that 3/8" drive 6" extension will be right there where you put it, next to your cell phone.

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I owned a 2001Ford Taurus I’ve owned for 5 years. I just sold it tonight. About 3 months or so I was almost to work and I felt a thud under the car. It was a pair of snap on straight jaw vise grips. I’ve done brakes, struts, ball joints, tie rod ends, radiator and who knows what else. I’ve never seen these things under there. I know they were there the whole 5 years though because I’ve never owned a pair. Now I do.:grinning:

OOPS :grinning:

I’ve done that. My old car club gave me crap for years after a road trip where I discovered a pair of pliers hanging from the valve cover ground wire.

My irritation comes from losing a tool I’ve had for years and is always put back into its storage home. Go looking for it and wtf. Used to just be me but now it’s the kid contributing. Anyway, the new tool is usually not as good of construction as the older tool that’s lost. Latest is a pipe cutter. Nowhere to be found. Go to buy another and they just aren’t as nicely made. Still hoping it turns up but have basically turned the basement inside out looking…

I’m starting to think that stuff just evaporates. There is no other explanation. Last night I was overhauling the mower carb and on the fuel pump there are several little springs plus a washer type cup for one spring. I got all the new parts in, then said where is the old spring cup? I know I put it in ten years ago so where is it? Could it still be inside the fuel pump? I even took it apart again to see if it was there-nope. Just disappeared. Looked again this morning and nowhere to be found but the mower runs so what the heck?

My dad used to blame kids for misplacing his tools. Ha ha we all knew better but I’ve used it a few times myself, but now I’m really thinking about the evaporation theory, or maybe being beamed up by aliens for inspection for a while, then beamed back.

Goes along with working on something, putting down the tool or part, and when it comes time to need the tool or part again it can’t be found. Happens too often to me and always causes me to curse a blue streak, mostly at myself.

I wonder if missing tools end up in the same void as all of those missing socks.

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I have seen the missing socks, they get run over by cars while making the great escape from the dryer.

I saw an inappropriate T shirt on TV today. It said “I have 200 sockets but a 10MM isn’t one of them.” It should have said 18 MM.

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The thief that steals your tools in the muddle of the night puts each one in one of your socks so he can get away without making any noise. He also never take both socks of a pair just like some people never want to take the last serving of anything.

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back in the 90’s I got a key fob that if you whistle it beeped back at you…needless to say, is somewhere in my house, because the battery died, never to be found… that is the reason why I have 7 hammers and a lot of screwdrivers…

Heh heh. I just bought a 1 1/4" socket for the lawn mower flywheel. Never needed it in 25 years so suppose it’ll still be nice and shiny at my auction. Part of it was it was just fun to go to the farm store and buy something.

You shoulda named one of your kids Not Me then.